Baby on mend, smiling at her dad

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An Invercargill baby whose throat was cut is on the road to a full recovery, her father says.

The baby, who is now 5 weeks old, had her throat slashed the day after her mother was turned away from Southland Hospital at the start of this month. "Time will tell but it looks that way [a full recovery]," the baby's father said from Auckland yesterday.

"She's doing fine . . . progressing. She smiles at me every time she sees me."

Early this week she was moved from the intensive care unit to the general ward at Starship children's hospital in Auckland, he said.

However, it was still "quite a few weeks" before the baby would be released from hospital.

He had been sleeping in the same room as his baby at the hospital and said she had a "hell of a temper".

"I'm feeling very tired. I'm being dragged from one end of the country to the other," he said.

He spoke to his wife each day on the phone and was visiting her today at Wakari Hospital in Dunedin, before continuing through to Invercargill to "check on things" and then going back to Auckland.

His wife was very confused and upset, he said.

His wife went to Southland Hospital on Sunday, September 1, in pain. After undergoing several tests, she was told she had postnatal depression and mastitis, was sent home and told to see her GP on the Monday.

Early that Monday, the baby's throat was cut.

Last week the father told The Southland Times he was exploring his legal options in relation to the way his wife was treated at Southland Hospital.

After seeking legal advice it looked like there was nothing he could do, he said yesterday.